Robin D. Cook On Assembling A Dynamic International Cast In 'Frankenstein'

The award-winning casting director on her long term collaboration with Guillermo del Toro...

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is one of the most celebrated and awarded films of 2025 since its premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival. It has appeared on many top ten lists, has been nominated for and won several awards, and is one of the most popular original films on Netflix. A lifelong passion project for its director, who has made an indelible career of dark fairy tales about misunderstood monsters, this is no exception. He has assembled some of the best craftspeople in the industry, and with casting director Robin D. Cook, a cast to die for led by Oscar Issac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and a powerful performance by Jacob Elordi as The Creature. Cook recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom about casting del Toro’s latest masterpiece.

[This conversation has been edited for clarity and context.]

How did you first get involved with the project? You’ve obviously worked with Guillermo before... He has such a great group of collaborators...

Guillermo and I met 15 years ago. We were doing a film called At the Mountains of Madness, and then it went down. Later, I was brought on to Pacific Rim, and since then, we’ve done 10 projects together. So we have a shorthand, as he does with all of his crew. We know the same people. I was on the show two years in advance, and then we had to stop for six months due to the SAG strike. It’s super easy between the two of us because he knows so many talented people. We know so many of the same actors that we were able to sprinkle in Burn Gorman and Ralph Ineson. I’m thrilled, lucky, and blessed to be on these shows with him.

Excellent. Obviously, from what I’ve heard and read, Frankenstein has been a lifelong passion of his. When did you first hear him say, “Frankenstein?”

I’ve always heard Frankenstein and At the Mountains of Madness, so it’s always been those two. Frankenstein, more so. There’s always been talk about it. Frankenstein has always been the constant. When it came for me a couple of years ago, when I read the first draft, and that was like, “Okay, we’re doing this. “ I said, “Great, great, great. Let’s bring it on,” He already had Oscar, Mia, and Christoph in mind for their parts. The Creature was also cast, but due to scheduling and strikes, we obviously recast it.

Let’s talk about Jacob Elordi, who is incredible as The Creature. How did the idea of casting him formulate, and when did it realize - Wow, this is our Frankenstein.

Nine weeks before we went to the camera, we realized we had to recast, and we only had four days to do so. The creature was crazy hard to cast. It had to be over six foot five. He had to have a presence to go toe-to-toe with Oscar. He had to have the vulnerability. There were so many layers. He had to go from a newborn child to this imposing creature. There were so many things that he had to bring. So we had four days, and we needed all of these things. The other thing was that whoever we cast had to be willing to do the extensive makeup.

There were times when Jacob was in the chair at 11:00 at night for an 8:00 AM call. You have to know that that is what this part is. We had a list of three people. Everybody was whispering in Guillermo’s ear about Jacob, watch Saltburn, watch Priscilla. Jacob had availability issues, but we worked it out, and the rest is history. Guillermo met with him and, within seconds, knew that it was the right actor, and it’s kismet because it was so perfectly cast. I can’t imagine anybody else in that part.

I love talking to casting directors. I think it’s such a fascinating job. I’d say the general public, but even industry professionals don’t know enough about it. They just think, like, “Oh, you just picked these names...” What did the process look like on this particular film? Did you hold any open calls for any of the parts?

We did for a few parts. So originally in the script, there were two young Victors. There was a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old, and we searched all over Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland, and Canada. Weirdly enough, I got him out of Canada. The thing about this cast is how international it is. We have Guatemala, Australia, English, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Danish, and Canadian. It’s so phenomenal. So there are total discoveries. When we were doing the ship’s crew... It was always written as a Danish ship, but we weren’t sure whether they’d speak Danish. So we put English, and then we did accented, and then we did any Nordic or Scandinavian accent. Then Lars Mikkelsen was cast, who I think is phenomenal, and then everybody had to be Danish. So we went to Copenhagen and found the rest of the crew there. We did find one Danish-speaking crew member from Winnipeg. So we did lots of open calls.

I’m a huge fan of character actors. Somebody who just nails that one moment and that’s their moment, and it’s beautiful. Who are some of the people you used in this project who you’ve wanted to cast before, maybe you’ve worked with before? I saw you had one of the actors from All Quiet On The Western Front.

Felix Kammerer broke my heart at the end when he goes, “You’re the monster.” Charles Dance came in; he had two scenes, two smaller scenes, and it was written for him. I cannot imagine anybody else in that part. We had cameos, really cool cameos, like Ralph Ineson and Burn Gorman. We were lucky to get Burn because we were in England at the time, and his schedule allowed it. It was great to pepper the Brits throughout it, since everyone had a British accent. I’m happy with everyone. It’s so hard to pick just one person out.

Also, in terms of your thought process on this project being a period piece. Some actors look very modern. How arduous was it to find people who looked like they could exist in the 19th century?

There is definitely a difference between a period actor and a contemporary actor. Are there actors who can do both? Absolutely. Jacob is one of them, along with Oscar and Mia. Because Guillermo and I have the shorthand and because we’ve been doing so many projects together, all of which are period films. Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, and Nightmare Alley were all period pieces. I remember having the conversation with him on The Shape of Water, and he was like, “We need to concentrate more on the period,” and then I did a lot of research on that. On The Shape of Water, Guillermo would send me books and old photos. I know exactly what he’s looking for.

The attention to detail on this film is phenomenal, having spoken to Dan Laustsen, Tamara Deverell, Kate Hawley, and hearing about the extensive research that they did, and of course, that Guillermo did...

Guillermo really is the hardest-working man in the movie business. If he’s not working, he’s researching, he’s writing, he’s promoting. I do not understand how he manages to have a family, because he’s always out there, he knows everyone, and it’s fantastic. He reads a lot, and he’s quite the genius.

He’s extremely impressive. There are only a handful of true auteurs who master every level of the process by knowing intimately what everyone on his crew does...

We had many meetings with all the departments, and we would hold auditions in the production office, and he would have the cinematographer in on our auditions so he could see where we were going. There’s a scene where Victor is choosing bodies, and we even carefully cast the people who hung and the people in the lineup. Everything is detailed. Guillermo loves interesting faces, but it’s all about the acting. We did do auditions for those, and one or two of them had lines. One of them was a cameo. A filmmaker from Spain. His name’s Santiago Segura.

This needs to be seen on a big screen because I saw it on a big screen, and you can spot that level of detail. Let’s talk about David Bradley as The Blind Man, his scenes are a very important beat in the story...

I did Guillermo’s series, The Strain, and David Bradley was in it. Guillermo and David are very good friends now, so that’s another part that you could just say, “What about David?” The Blind Man was relatively easy to cast because Guillermo knows David well, and we knew exactly what he would bring to it. He broke my heart when he was the only one who took the creature for who he was. David was so beautiful, present, and heartwarming.

Obviously, you’ve worked on lots of other things. What’s it like being part of this particular project? I love many of Guillermo’s films. I love Crimson Peak, which is underrated. I’m gonna call Nightmare Alley underrated even though it was a Best Picture nominee. This feels like it’s hitting the different quadrants. This is actually actively part of the culture now. What’s it like as a casting director being part of this?

I also think that Crimson Peak is underrated. I’m so happy. It’s funny because it doesn’t change my career. You know, I’m lucky enough to have done The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Testaments is coming out, which is phenomenal, and Scott Pilgrim and I’ve been very blessed in my career for 37 years. But I am so thrilled to be known as Guillermo’s longtime casting director. I love my job. We all love our jobs. We would all do it for free for Guillermo because it’s our calling. His vision, to be associated with it in any way, we’re just so lucky.

Frankenstein is now streaming on Netflix.